The Delhi office of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which is in the HT House building on KG Marg was on Tuesday searched by the Income Tax department. The action by the Income Tax department has come amid huge controversy surrounding a BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to reports, its Mumbai office was also raided simultaneously. During the investigation, the mobile phones of all the employees present in the BBC office have been taken by the IT team. The data of the computer kept in the accounts office was also scanned. And no personnel was allowed to go out. A team of 24 I-T people conducted raid in Delhi. There are a total of four teams, in which one team includes 6 I-T people.
Notably, a few hours before the raid Union Home Minister Amit Shah had criticised the BBC documentary on 2002 Gujarat riots. "The truth emerges despite a thousand conspiracies around it. They are after Modi since 2002. But every time, Modi Ji comes out stronger & more popular," Shah had said.
The income tax team has reached for verification of a few documents, sources said.
On January 21, the government issued directions for blocking multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the controversial documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The Supreme Court had on February 3 also directed the central government to produce original records relating to its decision to block the BBC documentary.
In January, the Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Jamia Millia Islamia, Ambedkar University even witnessed commotion between group of students over screening of the documentary. As many as 24 students affiliated with the National Students' Union of India (NSUI) were detained from Delhi University's Arts Faculty and heavy police deployment was maintained in the North Campus.
